Canadian Bishop Blocks Asian Church Leader from Visiting His Diocese

One of Canada’s most liberal Anglican bishops has blocked the planned visit to British Columbia of a prominent Asian archbishop who opposes homosexual rights and believes that totem poles contain evil spirits.

Conservative Anglicans, angry at Bishop Michael Ingham’s ban on a visit by Moses Tay, Archbishop of Singapore and Primate of the Anglican Province of South East Asia, have accused him of censorship. But Bishop Ingham of New Westminster said he had barred the visit because he feared Archbishop Tay’s presence would disrupt sensitive discussions within the Vancouver-based diocese of New Westminster over blessing same-sex unions and the handling of the delicate issue of abuse at church-run native residential schools.

St Matthew’s Church in Abbotsford, British Columbia, had invited Archbishop Tay to a celebration to be held October 28, 2000.

The Canadian church’s national newspaper, Anglican Journal, reported that parishioners felt “pain and anger” that the speaker had been banned.

Bishop Ingham declined to give an interview to Ecumenical News International (ENI), and his staff said he did not wish to speak to the media any further about the matter. But in a letter to Trevor Walters, rector of St Matthews, Bishop Ingham said he did not want “to see any episcopal ministry exercised here which might disturb my efforts to create a climate of dialogue and mutual listening among members of the diocese.”

The banning of Archbishop Tay was, he added, “really a question of a particular person at a particular time whose actions would be considered more inappropriate than helpful.”

Bishop Ingham has described Archbishop Tay as “aggressively anti-homosexual.” The bishop said the archbishop “has been very aggressive in his anti-homosexual and homophobic stance,” even opposing the discussion of homosexual issues, because he did not want what he (Archbishop Tay) called “polluting literature” in his churches.

The homosexual issue is not, however, the only reason for the ban. After seeing totem poles in Vancouver’s Stanley Park, during a visit to Canada ten years ago, Archbishop Tay organized prayer meetings to exorcise the “evil spirits” from the aboriginal artifacts. According to Bishop Ingham, “both our relationships with aboriginals and our discussions around gay and lesbian spirituality would make his [Archbishop Tay’s] presence difficult.

He denied the decision was a sign of liberal intolerance.

“I’m all for theological diversity,” Ingham told the Vancouver Sun before he stopped speaking to the media about the issue. “But I’m concerned his visit would harm my attempts to create dialogue and mutual listening in the diocese.”

Bishop Ingham said he had unanimous support from senior Anglicans in Vancouver. And most Canadian bishops support his ban on Archbishop Tay, whom Ingham has described as “a schismatic” who had been elected as primate mainly because the small South East Asian Anglican church was dominated by Pentecostals.

Ed Hird, a local Anglican clergyman who brought Archbishop Tay to Vancouver in the early 1990s to lead a conference on church growth, expressed surprise at Bishop Ingham’s ban on the Asian archbishop.

Hird told the Vancouver Sun: “I have a very high opinion of Archbishop Tay. He’s very outspoken. You know Chinese Christians tend to say what they think.”

Hird said many Anglicans were asking why Archbishop Tay was shut out of Vancouver when controversial liberal bishops, such as John Shelby Spong of the United States and Richard Holloway of Scotland, had been welcomed to the diocese. But Bishop Ingham’s supporters pointed out that many leading conservative Anglicans had come to Vancouver to speak publicly, without previous intervention by the bishop.

Walters said that the church wanted Archbishop Tay because he was knowledgeable about church planting—establishing new congregations—and the parish planned to plant a church in the coming year. Walters also has a personal connection with Archbishop Tay. A number of years ago, Walters’ wife was ill. Archbishop Tay prayed for her and prophesied that she would get well, though slowly, and that her story would circle the globe. Mrs Walters has since recovered, and her story has been sent around the world on cassette tape.

“We have accepted this decision with great sadness and frustration but we’re not fighting it,” Walters told the Anglican Journal.

In September this year Archbishop Tay refused to attend a high-ranking Anglican meeting in Scotland, declaring that the Scottish Anglican Primate, Bishop Richard Holloway, who has spoken out in favor of homosexuals, was a heretic.